1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of parachute release devices in general, and in particular to a bi-directional pilot parachute release arrangement that selectively permits either right or left handed actuation.
2. Description of Related Art
As can be seen by reference to the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,869,809; 2,922,604; 4,034,940; 4,039,164; 4,898,346; and 5,263,663, the prior art is replete with myriad and diverse parachute release arrangements.
While all of the aforementioned prior art constructions are more than adequate for the basic purpose and function for which they have been specifically designed, they are uniformly deficient with respect to their failure to provide a simple, efficient, and practical method and apparatus that will allow a single sky diver or a skydiving student assisted by one or more instructors to selectively deploy a pilot parachute in either a right handed or left handed "throw out" into the airstream.
Modern free fall parachute equipment has evolved from emergency bail out parachutes which the military forces have been using since before World War II. All free fall type parachute systems require a relatively small pilot parachute that can somehow be launched into the free flow airstream to deploy the main parachute.
The typical emergency parachute used, and still uses, a pilot parachute which typically contains a large coil spring which self launches the pilot parachute after it is released from the parachute container as the result of a ripcord being pulled. Since the unskilled parachutist will typically fall with their back toward the earth with their head lower than their feet, the pilot parachute will typically launch immediately after being released from its container even though it may tangle with a tumbling parachutist. It was also learned in the early years of skydiving, where the parachutist typically falls in a stable, face to earth position, that the spring launched pilot parachute would sometimes get aerodynamically trapped in the low air pressure area above the free falling body. This would lead to a delayed deployment of the main parachute or worse.
To alleviate the spring launched pilot parachute problem for skydivers, in the 1970's William Booth of DeLand, Fla. invented U.S. Pat. No. 4,039,164, a "hand deployed" pilot parachute. In this design, no ripcord is used and the pilot parachute has no spring. The soft fabric pilot parachute is simply folded and placed in an elastic pocket in a convenient location for the parachutist to reach so that it can be thrown to the side into the airstream. Today, the pocket is typically oriented laterally on the bottom of the main parachute container which places it near the small of the back or hips of the parachutist. A handle is affixed to the apex of the pilot parachute, which protrudes from the mouth of the pocket, and the mouth is oriented for the pilot parachute to be extracted from the right hand side. In some instances this arrangement is reversed for left hand operation. This arrangement has worked well for all but one group of skydivers--the AFF (Accelerated Free Fall) students.
AFF students are taken to high altitude where they make a lengthy free fall with two instructors--one holding the student from the left side and one holding from the right side. After many years of using a spring launched pilot parachute with a left and a right side ripcord, AFF students are now sometimes being trained with the hand deployed pilot parachute system. With today's standard hand deployed pilot parachute configuration, only the right side instructor can deploy the pilot parachute, if the student doesn't. With a pocket modified for AFF students, the left side instructor can cause the pilot parachute pocket to open along its length, but cannot actually deploy the pilot parachute into the free flow airstream and, therefore, there is no assurance that the pilot parachute will not delay and this increases the chances for some sort of entanglement. In reality, this configuration, if released from the left side is almost certain to be less reliable than the spring launched pilot parachute which it has replaced.
As a consequence of the foregoing situation, there has existed a longstanding need for a new and improved bi-directional pilot parachute deployment arrangement that will allow the pilot parachute to be selectively released from either the skydiver's right or left hand side, and the provision of such an arrangement is a stated objective of the present invention.